Deutsch
Malaysia/Kuala Pilah Round the world trip 2007
7-12
The past two days we have enjoyed cloudy skies. Thank goodness, since the temperatures are over 95 degrees. The southwest trade winds prevelent during this time of year are pleasantly at our backs. We sweat so much that our drenched clothing actually help to keep us cool. The riding has been through some rural country, past more traditional Malay Houses, logging operations, miles of rubber plantations and palm oil crops. Judee got off the bike and to talk to the lady scratching the ring into the tree that let the rubber seep into the attached pot. We learned later that Malaysia is importing workers from Thailand and Indonesia to work the plantations because there are few Malays that want the work. Many plantations sit unproductive. We have been dazzled by a few brilliantly colored birds including the magnificent kingfisher with its irridescent blue-green wings. The birds sing to us as we ride. Art saw another monkey and we can hear their big bodies moving through the trees after the ripening fruit.
The smells are almost unbearable at times. Open drainage ditches, rotting fruit, hidden trash in the jungle foilage and probably a few dead animals made me try to cover the smells with perfumed oil on my upper lip under my nose. It helped very little and gave me a rash!
Last night in Kuala Pilah, our hotel, the Desa Inn, was a clean well-accomodated place plus the lady manager helped us arrange a taxi to take us to see the all wooden state palace built entirely without nails in 1905 and used until 1957. She also recommended a terrific place for dinner and in the morning her husband, George, a Portuguese gentleman who moved to Malaysia in 1952, took us to breakfast. We also were treated like stars as we came upon an interesting festival and stopped to take photos. But the families turned the tables on us and we had to stand in front of each structure and have our photo taken with the gathered clans!! We were dragged from one clan compound “tent” to the next. Everyone wanted to touch us, to be near us in the photographs, to talk English and ask about our journey. The men were enthusiastic and the women, animated. We are flagged down by people sitting at outdoor easteries, waved at by women and children waiting for buses! It is fun to be noticed and included in conversations. If we had wanted to stay at the festival today, we were invited by each family, even given water and drinks for the road. We just had too far to ride (116km) to get to a hotel for the night.
We are not ready to do a home stay. Many of the foods are still strange, many we find unusual enough to be unpalitable to our western tastes. Bathrooms are often holes in the floor; no TP, but water is used to clean ones’self and water is all over the floor, even in public bathrooms. We look for western style accomodations and those are infrequent in non-tourist areas where we are often riding. Tourist locations can be very far apart, accessible by car, bus or train, but not by bike. Local accomodations do not have a/c and we have a tough time sleeping in the 80 degree heat and then trying to ride all the next day.
July 13 Malaysia/Gunung Senyum Weltreise 2007 >
The past two days we have enjoyed cloudy skies. Thank goodness, since the temperatures are over 95 degrees. The southwest trade winds prevelent during this time of year are pleasantly at our backs. We sweat so much that our drenched clothing actually help to keep us cool. The riding has been through some rural country, past more traditional Malay Houses, logging operations, miles of rubber plantations and palm oil crops. Judee got off the bike and to talk to the lady scratching the ring into the tree that let the rubber seep into the attached pot. We learned later that Malaysia is importing workers from Thailand and Indonesia to work the plantations because there are few Malays that want the work. Many plantations sit unproductive. We have been dazzled by a few brilliantly colored birds including the magnificent kingfisher with its irridescent blue-green wings. The birds sing to us as we ride. Art saw another monkey and we can hear their big bodies moving through the trees after the ripening fruit.
The smells are almost unbearable at times. Open drainage ditches, rotting fruit, hidden trash in the jungle foilage and probably a few dead animals made me try to cover the smells with perfumed oil on my upper lip under my nose. It helped very little and gave me a rash!
Last night in Kuala Pilah, our hotel, the Desa Inn, was a clean well-accomodated place plus the lady manager helped us arrange a taxi to take us to see the all wooden state palace built entirely without nails in 1905 and used until 1957. She also recommended a terrific place for dinner and in the morning her husband, George, a Portuguese gentleman who moved to Malaysia in 1952, took us to breakfast. We also were treated like stars as we came upon an interesting festival and stopped to take photos. But the families turned the tables on us and we had to stand in front of each structure and have our photo taken with the gathered clans!! We were dragged from one clan compound “tent” to the next. Everyone wanted to touch us, to be near us in the photographs, to talk English and ask about our journey. The men were enthusiastic and the women, animated. We are flagged down by people sitting at outdoor easteries, waved at by women and children waiting for buses! It is fun to be noticed and included in conversations. If we had wanted to stay at the festival today, we were invited by each family, even given water and drinks for the road. We just had too far to ride (116km) to get to a hotel for the night.
We are not ready to do a home stay. Many of the foods are still strange, many we find unusual enough to be unpalitable to our western tastes. Bathrooms are often holes in the floor; no TP, but water is used to clean ones’self and water is all over the floor, even in public bathrooms. We look for western style accomodations and those are infrequent in non-tourist areas where we are often riding. Tourist locations can be very far apart, accessible by car, bus or train, but not by bike. Local accomodations do not have a/c and we have a tough time sleeping in the 80 degree heat and then trying to ride all the next day.
